


Ice Cream and Understanding

by sixappleseeds



Series: The Evolution of Pynch [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:24:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixappleseeds/pseuds/sixappleseeds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>July is hot and muggy in Virginia. Adam's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Cream and Understanding

It was brutal out, the kind of July day where the humidity was so thick you felt like you were swimming in hot soup, and any clothing was too much clothing. Earlier Adam had mentioned daydreaming about filling a kiddie pool with ice and just laying in it. Gansey had pointed at him and said, “Make it happen. Find one big enough for all of us, and I’ll buy the ice.” 

So that was how he and Ronan found themselves braving the heat and the Saturday crowds at Wal-Mart, questing for plastic kiddie pools. They’d had to drive to two different Wal-Marts, the local one being sold clear out of children’s pools, which pissed Ronan off and made Adam grateful the BMW’s air-co worked, but they were ultimately successful in their mission. Ronan took the long way back, weaving along narrow two-lane roads past farms and woodlands Adam couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen before. The BMW hugged the curves as Ronan drove, and Adam thought he could see, finally, why Ronan liked driving so much. He didn’t brake nearly as often as Adam would have, and once they almost careened into a horse-and-buggy, but Ronan just downshifted, cursed, and shot around it. 

Eventually they came to an intersection Adam thought he recognized. Turning right would take them back to Henrietta. The kiddie pools - they’d gotten two, because Ronan insisted on having his own - were in their shrink-wrapped boxes in the back seat. Adam thought that, within the hour, he could be laying in an ice-filled pool in nothing but his boxers, and thought that sounded pretty good. He wondered if Noah would get in. He wondered if Blue would come over, and what she’d think. He wondered if he cared.

They were still sitting at the intersection. Adam looked at Ronan. “You alright?” he asked.

Ronan gripped the steering wheel. He was scowling behind his aviators, which wasn’t unlike Ronan, necessarily, but it also wasn’t like him to remain idle like this.

“There’s an ice cream place down that way,” Ronan said finally, gesturing to his left. “I haven’t been there in years.”

Adam had spent more than his share of money on the kiddie pools and he didn’t have a lot left, but this was clearly a place Ronan had been with his family, before his family broke apart. “Let’s do it,” he said. “Gansey can wait a while longer.”

Ronan grinned, and gunned the BMW into a screeching left turn. 

The shop was the kind of place that served six flavors of ice cream plus sundaes, pies, cinnamon rolls, and chili dogs if you wanted something savory. Cows languished in rolling fields nearby, and a cat dozed under an apple tree out front. The rickety screen door to the shop squeaked when Ronan pulled it open for Adam. Inside a girl in a dark blue dress leaned on the counter, reading a paperback. 

“Parrish,” Ronan said as Adam looked around the shop. “May I buy you an ice cream cone?” 

Adam started. “I can pay,” he said. He could. He could afford the small size as long as he didn’t get a waffle cone. He wouldn’t have any more cash for the week, but damn it, he could pay for this.

Ronan yanked off his sunglasses so Adam could see he was rolling his eyes. “I know you can. Jesus, Parrish, you think this is charity?” He stared at Adam. He looked angry. Actually, he looked like he wanted to fight, like maybe if they weren’t in an ice cream shop with a girl waiting patiently a few feet away, maybe he would. 

It occurred to Adam that Ronan, unlike Gansey, never pretended he wasn’t angry with him. It further occurred to Adam that, when he let himself be angry at Ronan, as he was starting to feel now, it never became a wedge between them like it did with Adam and Gansey, or Adam and Blue. How extraordinary to feel comforted by the realization that there was someone in Adam’s life who never backed away from his anger. 

All at once that growing anger dissipated, and Adam found himself smiling. Ronan raised both eyebrows. “Okay,” Adam said. “But only if you let me pay for you the next time we go to Nino’s.” 

Ronan appeared to consider this. Adam saw the line of Ronan’s mouth soften from his trademark sneer to something approximating a real smile. He looked back up at Adam. “Deal.” 

Several minutes later, they sat in wooden rocking chairs on the porch of the shop, attempting to eat their cones faster than the ice cream melted. Ronan had bought them both large waffle cones. Adam’s fingers were already sticky. He’d gotten the butter pecan, and Ronan had bright green mint chocolate chip. Adam rocked in his chair as he ate, back and forth, his heels tapping lightly on the wooden porch floor. Wind chimes tinged in a sudden breeze, and Adam could smell the dairy, the cows, and under that, Ronan. Some weight he hadn’t known he carried eased slowly, leaving his shoulders loose and relaxed in a way he hadn’t felt for a long, long time. Happiness was not something Adam Parrish looked for, or counted on, and if someone had said to him a month ago that he could be happy sitting on a rocking chair eating ice cream with Ronan Lynch, he would have laughed in their face. And yet here he was. He closed his eyes.

“You’re dripping, Parrish,” Ronan observed. Indeed, over his fingers and onto the floor. The cat had come over and was sniffing the spots with interest. Adam transferred his cone to his other hand and licked his fingers. Ronan stood abruptly. He went into the shop and came out with a handful of napkins. “Here,” he said, thrusting them at Adam before turning away.

Adam fell asleep on the drive back to Henrietta. Between his ice-cream full belly, the soft, piping music Ronan had put on, and the BMW’s air-co, he couldn’t keep his eyes open. He noticed, though, that Ronan drove carefully, easing around curves, not speeding, never braking hard, as if he suddenly carried some kind of precious cargo instead of kiddie pools from Wal-Mart. Adam wondered what had changed, just before he slipped into easy, contented sleep.


End file.
